Engine Block Age Cracks

[Bruce Collins]

To all, Upon my return drive to the Seabring GOF I notice a trace of water flowing down the block behind the Manifold. Thinking that it was the large Freeze Plug I removed the Carb's and Manifold. Upon inspection I noticed some very faint hairline cracks running horizontally along the water Galley just below. Speaking with a welder who specializes in making this sort of repair he mentioned that this is a common occurrence in old Tractor engines and can be easily repaired. This work can also be done without taking the engine completely down. It is recommended that you remove the components from the engine and take the engine out. Upon doing so remove the paint and clean off the block. Have it Magnafluxed to make the cracks stand out.. Then the welder can do his repair, grind down the welds and polish it. Then I can repaint it and it will be as good as new. The time to do the magnaflux and welding can be done in a day or two. Next week I will have this work done and order the parts that I wish to replace (such as rubber mounts for the Headlights, Radiator mounts, etc. Things that upon dismantling the car should be addressed.) I will add that because I have good Oil Pressure (60+ PSIG) and good compression, no water/gas in Oil, etc... I concluded a rebuild was not necessary. I will also note that I drive quite regularly and the engine (Actually a left over TB XPAG engine) is original to the car. More reason to repair than replace. I mention this to the list so that you may want to just take a look at your engine and see if any of these age cracks are beginning to appear on your engine. It caught early it is an easy repair and will continue the life of your pride and joy. Happy motoring! Bruce TC #2721 XPAG #3355 Down but not out!

[Dave & Diana Dwyer]

Bruce Your story sounds much like mine. While it was stripped for reconditioning I found a couple of cracks near a head stud in our PA block. Our local "welder who specialises in this sort of repair" said that it would not be necessary to oven the block as he would do a "low temperature repair". This he did and the damaged area now looked terrific. The reconditioning (white metal/line boring, etc) was completed and I reassembled the engine. The first time it got warmed up, a drip appeared in a place difficult to see: eventually I was able to trace the leak to a little below the repaired area. I tried sealants, to no avail. The area has now been Magnafluxed. This reveals that the metal added in the repair is sound, however it hasn't truly bonded to the block metal, I would say because the repairer tried to keep the temperature down. Unfortunately the temperature gradient between repair area and the (unovened) block was still too great and the heat stress has caused several more cracks, now reaching into the water jacket. I have just finished stripping the engine to investigate transferring the remaining usable parts into another block, as the the one which mentioned above might - and only might - be recovered by ##major## work at a cost about ten times more than the "repair" already done. In summation I would be most reluctant to let anyone, no matter how confident he might appear, put a torch anywhere near a cast iron block unless it had been warmed in an oven. I #think# I can use another block: do you have a spare if this guy turns out to be wrong? Regards Dave Dwyer J2, TA, TC